Lackeen
Records LAKCD003; 48 minutes; 2003

Though
it was released in Ireland some two years ago, Lake of Learning has only
recently become available in the UK thanks to Copperplate. According to the accompanying
press material this is the third album to have been released by Tim and Friends
and it is a great pity that the previous two remain relatively unknown
recordings (and, apologies, but this reviewer has never heard them).

Let’s
start with the Friends first of all since, in more than one sense, they are key
figures throughout. Though Tim’s own guitar is a key and reliable element
throughout (and he also adds bodhrán and bones on occasion), eight and a half
of the album’s twelve tracks are instrumentals. So very much at the musical
forefront are concertina player Barry Magee, fiddler Paddy Jones, accordionist
Ger Culhane, and Matt Bashford who supplies uilleann pipes (including some
amazing single-note squeals and wails on the title track) as well as low
whistles and that well-known traditional instrument the clarinet. Anyone
familiar with Ciaran Carson’s excellent little book (its dimensions never
diminish its import) may recall this: ‘I have never heard Irish traditional
music being played on the clarinet. I don’t know why this should be. Nor the
euphonium, though I can understand why this might be.’ (Please don’t send in
your recently recorded euphonium version of The Lark in the Morning,
although actually, on second thoughts ....) Well, Ciaran, you’ll still be
waiting for that clarinet because Matt doesn’t exactly play in a traditional
style on the song Reconciliation. Maybe Desi Wilkinson’s your man!

Anyway,
to return to the matter in hand, more ignorance must be divulged because this
increasingly uninformed reviewer has never heard of any of the musicians
involved except Tim (though that’s clearly his problem and not theirs). All he
can say is that they’re clearly a grand and proficient bunch and well immersed
in Kerry’s musical traditions, especially the music of Sliabh Luachra (whoops,
you see, there’s another lapse – I didn’t mention that TOSaF are based in the
county).

Indeed
many of the tunes here are drawn from Kerry or a quick nip across the border
into Cork, including The Humours of Lisheen, a stirring set of polkas, Cronin’s
(which Barry learnt from the remarkably-named John Lucid), and slides such
as Going to the Well for Water. Plus, the listener’s money will also
provide access to a French-Canadian jig, Carolan’s Mr. O’Connor (played
solo by Barry Magee) and a slow air, Feartha, composed by Tim himself
and played with expertise on the guitar.

As
for the four songs, well, it has to be said that they’re rather a mixed bag.
Tim is not a traditional singer in terms of either style, background or
inclination (and I’m guessing at the last two terms). Like many a contemporary
singer-songwriter he adopts a somewhat clipped and occasionally hurried
approach to his material (and that’s not a criticism either). This works to a
‘T’ on his own Lake of Learning, by far the most confident and effective
vocal performance on the album, but is sadly and erroneously applied to Willie
Taylor, the only traditional song on the album. Now Willie Taylor is
a truly classic song and one of the great murder ballads and is entirely
unsuited to the up-tempo approach applied here. For how it might be sung harken
to Cran’s Black Black Black.

Lyrically,
the other two songs are unquestionably awful. Reconciliation is one of
the worst pieces Ron Kavana ever composed, combining cloying sentiments with
that typically ‘Oirish’ corniness (the use of a music-hall song’s lines as the
chorus) for which Ron has sadly become renowned. The other is Andy M. Stewart’s
Freedom is Like Gold, the kind of protest song which makes this listener
want to demonstrate outside Andy’s house in protest against the composition’s
existence – crass, crass, crass! Sorry, Tim, but there are far better songs
which you could and ought to be singing.

However,
despite those misgivings, Lake of Learning remains a largely enjoyable
experience.